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"The Guadalcanal (CVE-60) operated in the Atlantic and, like other ships of the class
assigned to antisubmarine escort duties, was equipped with a high-frequency direction-finding antenna
on a pole mast forward of the island. She carried the standard class armament of a single 5-inch/38-caliber
dual-purpose gun at the stern, eight twin 40-mm Bofors antiaircraft mounts paired on the gallery deck
at the four corners of the flight deck, and 20 single 20-mm Oerlikons spaced along the gallery deck.
Six Avengers and eight Wildcats are on deck in this May 1944 view."

(Quoted text from the April 2007 issue of Naval History Magazine, US
Naval Institute, via Joe Radigan.)

USN

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Gale and hurricane weather, 17 October 1944. Seas were exceedingly high
in the morning and increased to mountainous in the afternoon. The winds averaged 48 knots, but as
high as 70 knots were recorded. Barometer lowest reading was 28.61. The Guadalcanal
rolled and pitched constantly, steering was difficult, engines were used to help steer the course.

Source: National Archive Photo; Courtesy of Task Group 22.3 Association.

Small image of USS Guadalcanal (CVE-60) with captured German submarine
U-505 alongside, off the coast of Africa, June 4, 1944.

USN

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Photo taken just prior to taking the captured U-505 in tow. Note
ship's boat alongside U-505.

National Archives photo # 80-G-49170.

USN

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Captain Daniel V. Gallery, Jr., USN (left) and Lieutenant Junior Grade Albert
L. David, USN photographed aboard USS Guadalcanal (CVE-60) in June 1944. On 4 June 1944
LT(JG) David led the boarding party that took control of the German submarine U-505 after it
was forced to surface by Guadalcanal's task force. This capture of an enemy warship
on the high seas was the first by the U.S. Navy since 1815. Albert David, who died on 17 September
1945, was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his leadership and bravery during this action.

USS Gallery (FFG-26) was named
after RADM Daniel Vincent Gallery and his brothers, RADM William Onahan Gallery and RADM Philip Daly
Gallery. USS Albert David (DE-1050,
later FF-1050) was named after LT Albert Leroy David.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives (# 80-G-49177).

U.S. Naval Officers shown on the submarine's conning tower are, from left to right: Commander Earl
Trosino, USNR; Captain Daniel V. Gallery, Jr., USN, Commanding Officer, USS Guadalcanal;
and Lieutenant Junior Grade Albert L. David, USN, who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for
leading the boarding party that captured the submarine and carried out initial salvage operations.

Note the United States flag flying above the German Navy ensign. U-505 was the first enemy
warship captured on the high seas by the U.S. Navy since 1815.

Courtesy of the Naval Historical Foundation, Washington, DC.

Naval History & Heritage Command photo (# NH 105857).

Naval History & Heritage Command

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USS Guadalcanal (CVE-60) photographed from a ZP-24 blimp while
steaming off Hampton Roads, Virginia on 28 September 1944. Her reported position was 36-56N, 74-50W,
course 095. Planes parked on her flight deck include twelve TBM/TBF Avenger torpedo bombers
and nine FM/F4F Wildcat fighters. Guadalcanal is painted in what appears to be
a modified version of Camouflage Measure 32, Design 4A.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval History and Heritage Command (# NH 106567).

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives (# 80-G-383994).

Joy Bright was born in Wildwood, New Jersey, on 4 May 1898. During World War I, after attending
business school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, she enlisted in the Navy as a Yeoman (F), serving at
Camden, New Jersey and at the Naval Air Station, Cape May. Following the war, she married Lieutenant
Charles Gray Little, who was killed in the crash of the airship ZR-2 in 1921. A year later,
she obtained employment with the Bureau of Aeronautics, where her duties included editing the Bureau's
"News Letter," which later evolved into the magazine "Naval Aviation News." In 1924,
she left the Bureau to marry Lieutenant Commander Lewis Hancock, Jr., who lost his life when USS Shenandoah
(ZR-1) crashed in September 1925—subsequently, she sponsored USS Lewis
Hancock (DD-675), named after her late husband.

Joy Bright Hancock returned to the Bureau after attending Foreign Service School and obtaining a
private pilot's license. For more than a decade before World War II and into the first year of that
conflict, she was responsible for the Bureau's public affairs activities. In October 1942, she was
commissioned a Lieutenant in the new Women's Reserve (WAVES). She initially served as WAVES representative
in the Bureau of Aeronautics and later in a similar position for the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations
(Air), rising to the rank of Commander by the end of the War.

In February 1946, Commander Hancock became the Assistant Director (Plans) of the Women's Reserve
and was promoted to WAVES' Director, with the rank of Captain, in July of that year. She guided the
WAVES through the difficult years of Naval contraction in the later 1940s and the expansion of the
early 1950s, a period that also saw the Navy's women achieve status as part of the Regular Navy. Captain
Hancock retired from active duty in June 1953. The next year, she married Vice Admiral Ralph A. Ofstie
and accompanied him on his 1955–56 tour as Commander, Sixth Fleet. Following her husband's death
in late 1956, she lived in the Washington, D.C., area and in the Virgin Islands. She died on 20 August
1986.

NHC

Miscellany

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This 8-foot (2.44 meters) model of USS Guadalcanal (CVE-60)
was donated to the Intrepid
Museum in NYC and will go on display in 2008.

Tom Dunham

Ex-USS Guadalcanal

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"Ex-Navy Carriers [Guadalcanal and Mission
Bay] May Go To Japan for Breaking Up."

Ron Reeves

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Stripped and powerless, the veteran WWII escort carriers Guadalcanal
and Mission Bay take a last voyage to a Japanese scrapyard under the charge of the Dutch
tug Elbe.